11/20/2017

Last week in the Arrowverse, many things got set up for future arcs for each show, or they just had a bunch of fun!

We got to see the breakup between Alex and Maggie on Supergirl as they finally decided that whether or not to have children is a big decision that both parties need to be on the same page for. It resulted in the two of them calling off their marriage and permanently breaking up.

Last week on The Flash the boys and the girls had their own separate adventures. The guys had a bachelor party, thanks to Ralph, ended up at a strip club and then later on in jail. The girls had a more eventful bachelorette party, which ended up with them going on an adventure and facing off against metahuman gangsters to save both Killer Frost, and a metahuman who was being mined for drugs.

On Legends of Tomorrow, the Legends went to the 1800s and went vampire hunting. Much to Rory’s disappointment, it wasn’t a vampire, something much worse. Damien Darhk was instead resurrected and once again is the main bad guy for the group for the remainder of the season.

Finally, on Arrow, Oliver goes on a trip with Slade Wilson to help find his missing son in a foreign country. While Oliver is going as Oliver Queen the politician and not Green Arrow, he still can’t help but scratch his itch to get into some action and Slade finds out his son was kidnapped by a group called The Jackals. The catch is, that Slade’s son is actually the leader of the nefarious group.

This week in the Arrowverse, some episodes were a lot of fun, some were very heavy. So how did the Arrowverse go this week?

Supergirl: “Midvale

There are some folks who had been complaining that the Maggie/Alex storyline was overshadowing Kara’s adventures on Supergirl. Others complained that it was the producers being “social justice warriors” by simply showing a relationship between two lesbians. It seems that we are getting them scaled back as last week the couple broke up over the fact that Alex wanted kids and Maggie didn’t. Maggie naturally is a mess as the result of breaking up with the one true love. So Kara decides that the best thing would be for them to get out of National City for a few days and head back to their hometown of Midvale for a little R&R.

While Alex spends some time just nursing her wounds by getting drunk, Kara tries to help her out. In Alex’s outburst, she makes the point that Kara has no right to tell Alex she should get back into the swing of things, when she spent so much time mourning the loss of her love Mon-El and shutting everyone down as well. While the two were having an argument about loss and letting people in their childhood bedroom, Kara proceeded to focus on a telescope still in the bedroom.

Then, we are treated to an extensive flashback (for the rest of the episode) showing Alex and Kara when they were both young children. Alex was very rough on Kara, to the point that she continuously reminded her that they weren’t sisters, and resenting Kara for being an alien. For one thing, the two young actresses they hired for the episode: Izabela Vidovic (Kara) and Olivia Nikkanen (Alex) were spot on in regards to looking and sounding/mannerisms like their adult counterparts. The episode was pretty much carried by the two young actresses as they went on their own adventure.

Young Kara has no friends at school (not even Alex). That all changes when she meets Kenny, another young loner/outcast and they share a special bond. She even goes on a date with the young man. That all comes to a break when Kenny shows up the next day dead. Kara ops to use her superhuman abilities along with Alex (using her newly discovered detective abilities) to try and solve the crime. They uncover a pot-smoking football player and a teacher sleeping with one of his students. Ultimately, the real culprit was the “friendly” cop who happened to be drug dealing and caught by the inquisitive Kenny.

This flashback is important to Alex and Kara because it is the first time that the two of them worked together and even more important, it’s the first time that the Alex acknowledged that Kara was her sister. Kara realized that she should use her powers for heroics and Alex realized that she has a knack for police work and solving crimes, leading her to join the DEO. Going forward with the two teens solving the problem, they became irreplaceable.

The next day Alex and Kara reminisce about Kenny being the first time the two of them dealt with loss, as well the two of them experiencing their first adventure together. They realize that no matter what, they are sisters and love each other very much. The two decide it’s time to head back to National City and enjoy Gwen Stefani’s “Sweet Escape” for the ride home.

The Flash: “When Harry Met Harry”

As Barry has a new protégé Ralph (they still did Wally dirty), he has to train the slacker to become a real hero. The episode begins with Ralph once again not paying for coffee at Jitters. As the two are arguing about who is supposed to pay for the next round, a mugger holds the two of them at gunpoint to rob them for their money. Knowing the poor guy has no way of overpowering the two of them, he pulls Ralph aside to see if he can use his “Plastic Man” powers to take the guy down. As they are discussing how to stop the attacker, he takes a shot at Ralph, who thanks to his powers is bulletproof. As the bullet enters Ralph, he absorbs it and it deflects back to the shooter, hitting him in the leg. From Ralph’s respective, the bad guy got his due. Barry, of course, thinking like The Flash wants to get the guy some help for his injury, starting his training of how to make Ralph a “hero” who looks out for all people (hero or villain) no matter the circumstances.

This week introduces yet another Dark Matter metahuman. This one, however, I can’t really fault for why they are being the “bad guy.” Well, maybe because they are doing some killing. Enter: Black Bison. Black Bison is a former college professor-turned-extreme activist who is primarily interested in securing Native American artifacts that were stolen. She just happens to have the metahuman ability to bring an inanimate object to life and be able to control them. She uses her power frequently in this week’s episode: bringing a concrete jaguar to life to maul a victim, bringing a knight’s armor to life, even bringing dinosaur bones to life to give Ralph a run. She’s really just trying to get her people’s artifacts back as they have been stolen via the slaughter of Native Americans throughout history. However, because she is hurting people in the process, she’s the bad guy.

In more than one occasion trying to stop Black Bison, Ralph tries to apprehend her, instead of focusing on helping people either injured or in danger as their fights carried on. Ralph is thinking like a former police officer, not a hero. Barry gives him a stern talking to in regards to first being there for people and the bad guy is secondary. It’s only when a little girl I injured does he realize the error of his ways.

Meanwhile, there’s still the DeVoe problem to deal with. Of course, there’s probably a hundred people with the name DeVoe in Central City. It’s going to take a lot of effort (and smarts) to try and figure out who this DeVoe character that is puppet-mastering everything really is. Lucky for Team Flash, they have Earth-2’s Harry Wells, and he has his own set of friends who can help, Enter: The Council of Wells. This is very reminiscent of Rick and Morty in regards to having multiple versions of a character who are all different, interact with each other. This gives actor Tom Cavanagh a chance to really shine as he not only played Earth-2’s Wells, but also Wells from Earth-12, Earth-27, and Earth-22. Each Wells had a distinct personality. Earth-2 was a German intellectual, Earth-37 was a womanizing Matthew McConaughey-type, Earth-22 was “Wells 2.0” half-machine/half human from a post-apocalyptic in the multiverse. They first bicker with each other, but then put their great minds to work and figured out who the real DeVoe is: Clifford DeVoe. Of course, being the Thinker, DeVoe was already waiting for them when they came to his house.

Legends of Tomorrow: “Helen Hunt”

This week, the Legends head to Hollywood in a fun play of words. This weeks’ time-travel event is focused on Hellen of Troy, as she ended up in 1937 Hollywood. Instead of a Trojan war over her beauty, it’s a war between competing movie studios. Believe it or not, even movies affect history. So the Legends have to go back in time to get Helen back and also make sure the time anachronism doesn’t cause further damage.

The best part of the episode focused on Firestorm. Jax and Stein are working on a way to separate themselves so that Stein can have a normal life (and actor Victor Garber can gracefully leave the show). As they are performing an experiment, an explosion happens. This causes the two to switch bodies. This allows actors Victor Garber and Franz Drameh to have some fun imitating each other for the entirety of the episode. Franz does a pretty good Stein impression.

As the group enters Hollywood, they realize that Helen staying there will cause all sorts of ripple effects to the timeline. For one, there would be no Wi-Fi as Hedy Lamarr was getting passed up thanks to Helen and on the verge of quitting. Lamarr was not only an actress, but an inventor who would ultimately re responsible for us always asking, “What’s your Wi-Fi password?” In addition to that, they Helen doesn’t want to go back as she’s tired of men fighting each other to the death over her. She’s also got a new agent. It also turns out that Stein (in Jax’s body) has a major crush on Lamarr. He even tells Jax that she was his “hall pass” from his wife. He makes it his mission to talk her back into being an actress.

If anyone could make it in the cutthroat world of Hollywood, it’s Damien Darhk. He wants to set up a parlay with Sara so that there can be no further fighting and possible bloodshed. Sarah realizes that if he wants to take a break, then he’s got something to hide. She plays ball for the time being. While that goes on, Amaya also has a face to face with Kuasa, who it turns out is Amaya’s granddaughter from the future. Sara and Damien Darhk end up fighting with the promise of “no magic” which his daughter promptly finds a way to cheat. As they corner Sara and are about to kill her, Firestorm merges, this time with Stein being the driver and Jax is in his head. As they make Darhk and his daughter leave, they have saved Hellen, and therefore, saved the future.

Zari secretly travels with Hellen, who doesn’t want to return back to her time. Lucky for Hellen, there’s no history of where she ends up. As a result, Zari drops her off to a place where all “warrior women” can live and flourish in peace: Themyscira 1253 BC, the home of DC’s own, Wonder Woman

Arrow: “Promises Kept”

SPOILER!! With the big reveal that the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) was going to have Deathstroke teaming up with a newly escaped Lex Luthor to form a “league of their own” for the DC movies, let’s hope that Joe Manganiello can bring Deathstroke with the same depth and excitement for the big screen that Manu Bennett has on Arrow.

This week was primarily about Slade, Oliver, and his son Joe, who now goes by Kane and runs The Jackals, a terrorist group. This week continues and focuses on the relationship between Slade and his son. While last week’s flashback was about a camping trip between the two, this week focused on Slade when he got back from Lian Yu full of regret for not being there for his son. We even got to see Shado (in Slade’s mind).

Slade’s son and the Jackals try to steal some Semtex to be used. Knowing that it’s probably not a good idea to let terrorists gain Semtex, Oliver and Slade try to stop them. Slade is somewhat torn as this is his son of course. Oliver reassures him that he is no longer Deathstroke (The Terminator) and he has worked very hard to be on the better side. Instead of joining his son (at his son’s request), Slade and Oliver try to take him down.

Meanwhile, Team Arrow is busy trying to face off against a new player called Dragon, who is trying to make an impact on the drug market. Remember, Diggle has been dependent on a new steroid to deal with his right hand. Turns out, the new drug boss guy has just what John needs. However, Team Arrow needs to bust him. John has a dilemma, come clean with his team and seek the help he needs, or work against his team to satisfy his need for the drug. John has a heart to heart with his wife Lyla (where’s she been all season?), who is angry with him that he’s willing to give Dragon a pass to satisfy his need. Later on, the team faces off against Dragon once again at a warehouse and the drugs catch on fire, destroying his supply.

In the aftermath, John fesses up to the team telling them about his hand as well as his need for the drugs. Everyone is understanding and Curtis volunteers to help him. He did get Felicity to walk after being shot in the spine after all. Looks like Diggle will be all right after all.

Slade an Oliver opt to stop the Jackals. Oliver goes for the main brunt of the bad guys while Slade and his son face off. Kane reveals to his father what we all knew from last week. Kane saw his father in action as Deathstroke way back during their camping trip. He also reveals that he has another brother, one that Slade’s wife kept secret from him. Kane gets the drop on his father and just before he is about to kill him, Oliver rescues him, allowing Kane to escape. Slade tells Oliver to go home and be with his son, while he goes off in search of Kane and his other son.